How much can cold affect guitar?

Updated
Georgios K.

Hello,

I keep my guitar inside an esp hard case in constant temperature of ~21 Celcius. Soon I will have to take it outside to a -4 to 0 temperature.

Will this affect my instrument and perhaps ruin it? Is there a way to "condition" the guitar by gradually dropping the temperature so that the damage will be less?

Thanks

Pushead

How long will the guitar be in the cold?  Is it just for transport?  For a single gig?  Are you moving into an igloo?

There will be some affect, but it varies with many factors.  For a short time, (like a gig), it [u]may[/u] affect the relief of your neck, and your intonation.  If it's a nitro finished guitar (not most ESP guitars) you could experience some checking (cracking) of the finish. 

Georgios K.

No, no gig. Just for transport, like for ten minutes. It has the vintage black finish. Maybe I'll get a taxi then, to minimize exposure but still it will have to suffer the drop of temperature..

 

Pushead

It'll be fine.  Keep the guitar in it's case.  You can use your car.  I've had guitars in cars/vans/trucks for several hours, during snowstorms between gigs and have never had a problem.

Georgios K.

Ok, thank you for your help

Big Daddy B

A trick I use when receiving guitars shipped from cold climates (and these are guitars that have been cold for a while, not just 10 mins)...if the case is cold to the touch when you get to your destination, just quickly crack the lid open a little and let it close immediately. Do this a couple of times over the next 1-2 hours and it helps the guitar acclimate slowly. As Pus said, unless you have a nitro finish, I really wouldn't expect too much to change except maybe the tuning.

ESP 348

What are your thoughts on storing the guitar in 'heat'?

My guitar collection lives under my bed. Some days when we are not home, it must get to 35c in there all day.

With the a/c one, the temp is set to 20c.

Any thoughts on leaving those guitars in that heat? I haven't looked at them for a while now, the last guitar I removed and played with the Greenburst to check a problem out for Big Daddy.

It was still in tune and everything looked and felt great on the guitar. I am just worried about long term storage of them. They have been there for around 4 years now.

Should I leave the a/c on set to 20c all the time perhaps? Will cost a shit load in electricity, but I have $50,000+ of guitars that I need to look after.

Pushead

It's the changes in temperature that are the biggest problems.  I keep my house around 60F in the winter and don't do much in the way of AC in the summer, so in the 80s indoors isn't uncommon.  I notice some changes in the relief as the year moves on, but small and simple adjustments bring them all back-in line.
As I mentioned before, I wouldn't worry about it.

Nathan S.

60 degrees!! Holy crap, how do you play guitar with a parka on???

Pushead

I wear a hoodie.  Not a big deal.

Nathan S.

Did you ever get your green flame replica back up and running Pus??

Pushead

You guilted me to get back to work on it.

Nathan S.

Haha, cool!! I love that green flame V man. Probably my second favorite Het guitar next to a yellowed out white explorer '84 or MX style. Looks good man.

Nathan S.

So, you said that wasnt an LTD just a cheapo. Do you know what kind of guitar it is Pus??? Is it like one of those Chinese knock off's from somewhere like RareElectricGuitars?? The paint job looks really damn good from your pic. I'd almost like to find another V200 to have painted up like that.

 

 

Pushead
Nathan S. wrote:

So, you said that wasnt an LTD just a cheapo. Do you know what kind of guitar it is Pus??? Is it like one of those Chinese knock off's from somewhere like RareElectricGuitars??

 

 

It's certainly not an LTD.  To be honest, the guitar looks and feels too amateur to be a Chinese ripoff.  The body was likely scrounged from something (had all brass pickup rings and backing plate) with reasonable hardware.  The neck is the same, very thin, profile all the way down the neck, and sloppily painted (you can see the runs.)  The initial setup used two neck plates, one as a shim, and the frets didn't go the entire way across the fretboard.  The fretboard is something very light, and smells horrible when sanded, I guess pine.  It looked like a light rosewood when I bought it, but I suspect it was dyed brown.  I had to dye it to match the filler on the inlays I installed, so black it went.  The EMGs are real, the Sperzels are real.

I suspect the builder found the body and made his own neck.  Put one of those sticker inlays at the 1st fret and tried to play it.

For the price I paid for the guitar ($125 shipped, I think?) the Epi V case and the hardware was worth it alone.  It'll sound great hanging on the wall of my office, though I did play it at practice for a bit last week.  There's a video somewhere of it.

Nathan S.

Wow, sounds like it was a doozy before. Well, at least it looks cool!!

Pushead

I haven't had the guts to try to put the new frets in.  It's still sitting on my workbench.

ESP 348

Cheers for the reply Pus!

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